United States: Clarifying the Truth at the California Candidate Forum

On October 7, California will hold a recall vote on the Governor's office. The candidates are busy campaigning for the election, and we thought that it was a good opportunity to clarify the truth. On September 28, the second Asian Pacific "Candidate Education Forum" was held in the Radisson Hotel Sacramento, and four governor candidates attended the forum. There were about 500 audience members and major media outlets present at the forum. Some western practitioners drove 2 hours to Sacramento to join the local practitioners and participate in the forum, in order to clarify truth to the audience, which included many Chinese people, government officials and members of the media.

The Lieutenant Governor answers a practitioner's question	A western practitioner asks the Lieutenant Governor a question

The practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts in the hall and waited for the chance to raise questions. Usually at a large-scale meeting like this, it is very difficult to raise questions because there were many people wanting to ask questions. On the other hand, the candidates had a limited time to answer questions. This time, the two westerner practitioners prepared the questions, waited at the microphone ahead of time, and raised two questions to two governor candidates. The questions were answered very well.

After the first candidate Ms. Arianna Huffington gave her speech, a practitioner asked her what she would do to stop the persecution of Falun Gong if she was elected governor, because the persecution not only effected many Chinese people but also many California residents since their relatives in China are tortured and detained, and there was also evidence showing the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco interfering with U.S. government support of Falun Gong. Huffington said that she would express her opinion that the persecution of Falun Gong was wrong. She would stand up to protect Falun Gong practitioners' rights.

Later, after the current Lieutenant Governor gave a speech, another western practitioner asked him if he was elected to Governor of California, would he initiate a motion to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong and this persecution as a form of genocide. He said that he supported the freedom of belief and would initiate such a motion.

When the practitioners were asking questions, the hall was extremely quiet, and we felt that the hall was full of righteous energy. Everyone was listening intently, and the words from the practitioners entered the people's hearts. After the two candidates answered the questions, the audience gave them rounds of warm applause.